Brazil and International Cooperation in Health

2017

This article examines the structural approach to health cooperation, focusing on its meaning as a method for promoting institutional policies to improve management models. We draw attention to the differences between this approach and the traditional disease-based approach, showing that the structural approach is centered on health systems, reinforces global governance, and embodies the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), thus taking on a multi-sectoral dimension. This approach leverages the maximum potential of international cooperation by establishing structuring networks and promoting relations between partner countries through their national health institutions, schools of public health, and technical staff. By way of example, we show that this approach is applied in the Union of South American Nations (UNASUL, acronym in Portuguese) and Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP, acronym in Portuguese), especially in Africa. Finally, we underline the importance of this approach for South-South relations, where it addresses the real necessities of partner countries, unlike North-South cooperation that is characterized by power asymmetries, especially within the economic and technical-scientific dimensions.

Plano da disciplina 'Cooperação Internacional e Desenvolvimento' ministrada no PPG Ciência Política e Relações Internacionais da UFPB

The Quality of Life, 1993

Ciência & Saúde Coletiva (Online), v. 21, 2016

This article analyzes the Mais Médicos (More Doctors) program based on the concept of an institutional arrangement, understood as the set of rules, organizations and processes that define the specific design of a given public policy, defining how it will articulate across players and interests. This concept will allow us to understand the dynamics of the players in this arrangement, as well as their governance, decision-making and governability, and how these factors reflect on public policy performance. A deeper analysis is based on four categories considered essential to understand an organizational arrangement in Brazil: sector cooperation (sometimes referred to as intersecoriality), federative relationships, social involvement and territoriality.

RECIIS, 2010

At the dawn of the new millennium, not only have poor countries' health needs not diminished, but they seem to have worsened due to a complex interplay among many factors that result in huge inequities within and between countries. This critical situation calls international development cooperation into question once again and prompts new thinking. In this process, South-South cooperation has steadily gained importance. At the start of the 21st century, international-particularly South-South-cooperation has come to occupy a strategic place in Brazilian foreign policy, and health is a priority item on this agenda. This paper examines the Brazilian conception of horizontal "structural cooperation in health". It presents a brief historical review of international development cooperation and health cooperation, explores the concept of "structural cooperation in health", and discusses the Brazilian proposal formulated over the past decade and its implementation to date. This Brazilian approach centers on the concept of "capacity building for development", but innovates in two respects: by integrating human resource development with organisational and institutional development and by breaking with the traditional passive transfer of knowledge and technology. It is still early to evaluate its impact, but this cooperation has been implemented on the basis of five interrelated strategic, political and technical considerations: (a) priority for horizontal cooperation; (b) focus on developing health capabilities; (c) coordinated initiatives in the regional context; (d) strong involvement of health ministers in building strategic and political consensus; and (e) encouraging partnership between ministries of health and foreign relations.

2014

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Interface - Comunicação, Saúde, Educação, 2015

A escassez de profissionais de saúde em áreas remotas e vulneráveis é um importante obstáculo para a universalização do acesso à saúde em diversos países. Este artigo examina as políticas de provimento de profissionais de saúde na Austrália, nos Estados Unidos da América e no Brasil. Apesar do sucesso parcial de iniciativas anteriores, foi apenas com o Programa Mais Médicos que a provisão de médicos em áreas vulneráveis teve a magnitude e a resposta em tempo adequado para atender a demanda dos municípios brasileiros. Estão em curso, no país, mudanças quantitativas e qualitativas na formação médica, que buscam garantir não apenas a universalidade, mas, também, a integralidade e sustentabilidade do Sistema Único de Saúde. O êxito dessas iniciativas dependerão da continuidade da articulação interfederativa, de políticas regulatórias de estado, bem como, do constante monitoramento e aprimoramento do programa.

WTO - Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, 2009

The aim of this Master's thesis is to study the feasibility and sustainability of mobilizing domestic resources to advance social movement causes in Latin America. The question is based on the understanding that Social Movement Organizations (SMO) can mobilize the resources-funds and labor-of domestic elite instances in order to favor their beneficiary bases. The thesis proposes a Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) approach and addresses various theoretical and practical concerns regarding the qualitative impact of that conception in the work of Social Movement Organizations. The specific focus of is centered on resource mobilization strategies and initiatives conducted by the SMO Abrinq Foundation for Children Rights of Brazil. The theoretical framework of this thesis is constructed upon the academic debate among different authors in the field of social movements; within this field of knowledge, the specific research areas of resource mobilization and public policy outcomes of social movements are of particular interest. This seeks to provide a pertinent conceptual structure for the analysis of the resource mobilization strategy implemented by the case study. Complementarily, literature focused on the foreign aid regime and its impact in the resource mobilization initiatives carried on by SMOs in Latin America is utilized to provide a historical context to the concept of DRM. The case study material of this research consists of documents produced by the Abrinq Foundation in which it describes and evaluates its programs, projects and institutional vision; policy documents published by the federal Executive of Brazil, accounting for compromises made within the framework of Abrinq Foundation's programs; and interviews conceded by representative members of the Abrinq Foundation to different Brazilian media outlets. The analysis of Abrinq Foundation's programs provides a moderately positive perspective regarding the feasibility and sustainability of a DRM approach by SMOs in Latin America.

Contexto Internacional, 2022

The benefits of an empirical assessment of South-South cooperation (SSC) are currently being debated in the critical literature on this subject. This assessment could distinguish SSC practices from other cooperation practices and increase its transparency, social control, and credibility. In this sense, this paper theoretically assesses the dialogical/decolonial potential of structuring cooperation in health (SCH), a model of SSC created by Brazil; and analyses the applicability of different heuristics for international agreements and interinstitutional projects to empirically assess this potential. In theory, the SCH narrative is compatible with the decolonial literature mentioned in this paper. However, case studies from the fields of International Relations (IR) and Global Health diverge about this compatibility based on empirical observation. Nonetheless, heuristics from the field of International Law and Policy Transfer studies can help to recognize the decolonial potential inscribed in international agreements. In order to advance in the assessment of the dialogic character of SCH through projects, this paper argues that, institutionally, it is necessary to define the categories inscribed in them and make their monitoring and evaluation reports public. It concludes that the IR field needs to absorb the knowledge from the health sector and its technicians-something that does not occur in Latin America given the low interest in this sector.